Metro weekly water update 12 October 2018

Note: 1 billion litres = approx. 400 Olympic swimming pools.  Please note these figures are rounded (except for rainfall) to the nearest whole number.

Water use

Average daily water use over the last week was 686 million litres, which was above the forecast of 649 million litres.  Since 1 July 2018 we have used 63 billion litres of water - this is about 5 billion litres above what we had forecast for this period.

Dam level (total for 15 dams)

The dam storage level has remained steady over the last week, remaining at 59 per cent* of full capacity.

*Please note some dams are filled from different sources and this increase may include the transfer of groundwater and desalinated seawater from treatment plants as well as streamflow (that comes from rainfall).  The percentage of full capacity number can also go up or down depending on how much water has been supplied to customers this week from dams.

Streamflow (total for 15 dams)

From 1 May 2018 to 11 October 2018 the dams have received 123 billion litres of streamflow.  The post-1975 average for the May to October period is 165 billion litres.

Sprinkler roster compliance

The two-day-a-week sprinkler roster now applies across Perth, so make sure your sprinklers are programmed for your rostered water days and only to come on once, either before 9am or after 6pm.

Our team of inspectors issued 95 warnings and 36 fines this week.  Since 1 January 2018, we have taken a total of 6,646 actions (warnings + fines) compared with 7,580 actions for the same period in 2017.

Annual rainfall

Perth has received 711 mm of rainfall since January this year.  The cumulative average rainfall for January to December is 732.8 mm.

General water news

In Perth we supplied an average 219,000 litres of water per residential property in 2017-18.  While that figure has been trending downwards in the last five years, Perth remains the highest water using city when compared to similar sized water companies across Australia.

We know that being water efficient at home can take a bit of effort.   Through our Tap In research program we heard that people think saving water is the right thing to do, but 66% said they could only make small (less than 10%) reductions in their water use.  A further 14% said they could not make any reductions in their water use at all.

The most significant barrier to people saving water was: “I don’t know what else my household could do to save water”.

If you’re stuck for ideas why not visit our water savings tips page